You act like love was a commodity
Commuting on the London train;
Selling space likely option
Knowing awareness was in the brain.

No conversation pleases you
Recalling the opposite of Adam and Eve
And when we hit a silent remonstration,
The Fall of Man reviews the locus of Steve.

It is always the same, between you and I:
Seeking the meaning of life under the skies.
But what if heaven runs different to your employment,
Am I off to be different like one of the guys?

Can you stand it? Will you let it be?
Is there a legacy from a university?
Defeat this, save that, take it literally –
And call me a prat!
What is Thine when she is not Thee?

Where is Mary and what is the history?

Where do you get your beliefs from? Miss I-Amness,
Is it the movie screen with ice cream before the news?
Or am I refined sugar for you to eat energetically?
Seeking the balance of time between me and you.

Snake bite and rattle bars caging sums
There must be a nuance for the leprosy of containing
The overspill of contagion between bums on seats
That is the replete abridgement of what I meant
When I kept quiet like a guy bent on a poetic concourse.

AI Summary

This poem explores the breakdown of communication between two people who are trying — and failing — to meet each other in truth. The speaker feels that the other treats love like a transaction, something to be managed, measured, or consumed (“a commodity,” “refined sugar”). The relationship becomes intellectualised, abstracted, turned into debates about Adam and Eve, heaven, university legacies, belief systems, and cultural scripts.

Underneath the cleverness is a sense of emotional exhaustion: the speaker keeps trying to reach something real, but the other person responds with detachment, performance, or inherited beliefs (“Miss I-Amness,” “movie screen with ice cream before the news”).

The poem keeps circling the question: Where do your beliefs come from, and why can’t we meet in the same reality?

The imagery of snake bites, cages, contagion, bums on seats, and poetic concourses shows how intimacy becomes contaminated by fear, misunderstanding, and the noise of the world. The speaker retreats into silence — not out of weakness, but because the conversation has become impossible.

The poem ends with a quiet confession: the speaker is someone who feels deeply, thinks deeply, and uses poetry as a way to survive the emotional gaps that ordinary conversation cannot bridge.